Stephen Graham

Dr Stephen Graham

Research Fellow

Organisation

University of Cambridge

Research summary

Human cells are subdivided into multiple compartments with distinct chemical environments, thereby allowing distinct (and potentially non-compatible) chemical processes to take place simultaneously. However, this compartmentalisation presents the cell with a logistical dilemma: How can it transport cellular components between compartments? The cell has tackled this problem by evolving a complex system of intracellular trafficking that is tightly regulated to ensure only the right compartments fuse and thereby allow mixing of their contents. I am interested in how this fusion step of intracellular trafficking is regulated, as aberrant regulation of fusion leads to numerous human pathologies. I will purify the proteins that regulate intracellular compartment fusion, map interaction networks between these protein and solve their structures at atomic resolution in order to build up a molecular model of how intracellular compartment fusion is regulated. I am also interested in how huma n pathogens such as vi